The following occur in _Hart's rules for compositors_ 39th ed. (1983) 142:

(b) One single-line note on a page should be centred;
two or more single-line notes on a page should be
ranged on the left, the whole being centred on the
longest.

(c) A short note may be set complete in the break-line
of another note provided it is set full right, preferably
with more than three ems between the notes.

(d) Short notes may be run on in the same line with
preferably at least 3 ems between them, the line being
centred. Where there are several short footnotes,
they should be ranged in columns with a minimum
of a 3-em space between the longest lines in the columns.

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How much of this could be automated for LaTeX?


Padraig de Brun

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